Rubbishing claims of impact of demonetization on undergoing polls in five states, experts on elections and black money have claimed that there has been no effect of the note ban on funding and expenditure of political parties on elections.

According to former Chief Election Commissioner HS Brahma, demonetization has had no impact on political party funding as political parties can submit any amount of money, and there is no restriction on their expenditure.

"It's easy to convert black money by shifting it into the accounts of political parties. One way of curtailing it is putting a threshold limit of Rs 2,000 as the ECI has recommended, and political parties must be made accountable for the conduct of candidates they field during elections," said Brahma.

He was speaking at a discussion on the Effects of Demonetization on Political Financing and Black Money, organised by Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), a non-political group aiming at governmental and electoral reforms.

Well known expert on black money, Professor Arun Kumar of JNU said the demonetization has affected only 6 per cent of total black money and had not affected the sources of black money income at all.

"Even cash caught in tax raids was easily justified by businesses as working capital. A long term sustained movement of engaging the youth through new media and social media that can impact consciousness of people is required to make a dent on black money," said Professor Kumar.

Another expert, Prof Jagdeep Chhokar said that the government's demonetization move had no effect on the political finances.

"The whole purpose of demonetization was to eliminate black money, but it can't be eliminated from the country until it is eliminated from the political process," he said.

He emphasised that the provisions under the Income Tax Act, Representation of People Act and Company's Law have nothing to do with the demonetization move.

Former Chief Election Commissioner, Dr SY Quraishi questioned the nexus between bureaucracy and politicians' intent on recovering their election expenditures.

As political parties could not agree on expenditure limits or the rationalisation of expenditure limits, he recommended state funding of political parties based on their performance, instead of state funding of elections.

He proposed that in such a model regular CAG audits would be conducted and there will be a total ban on any private donations